Curt Cignetti’s completely illogical SEC rant will only further pointless conspiracies

Texas A&M may not be close to the College Football Playoff rankings this year, but there’s still quite a bit to talk about when it comes to the top 25s that the committee is putting out every week. You already have a ridiculous explanation offered for some strange arrangements in the top 25 even after just one week of these rankings, and now, Curt Cignetti is stirring the pot.

Cignetti had this to say about what some apparently perceive to be too many SEC teams in the top 25:

"SEC gets a lot of love from ESPN, you know, and all their writers that they don’t technically pay, but march to their drum. So, and that’s why you see all these SEC teams up there, you know, and some good two-loss teams from the Big Ten, not quite as high. But like I said, it’s all going to be played out on the field."

Curt Cignetti

Curt Cignetti’s SEC, College Football Playoff comments are completely ridiculous

Cignetti is likely talking about Alabama, given that they are the highest two-loss SEC team in this ranking, but Texas also could fit the bill. Ole Miss is down at 10, but they also could be a target of his ire here as well.

Iowa, Ohio State, and USC are all 2-loss Big 10 teams that could have a claim to be up in the rankings as well, but there’s not a lot of complaints about their placement given each’s situation— Iowa and USC don’t have a signature win, and Ohio State has a loss to Texas that looks worse each week.

The problem with Cignetti’s comments is that he is equating the College Football Playoff rankings with something that ESPN is putting out there. While ESPN has a partnership with the CFP when it comes to media rights, this has absolutely nothing to do with their rankings.

In other words, ESPN may televise the release of the rankings each week, but they do not make the rankings. The rankings are made by the College Football Playoff committee, which is made up of people from all around the CFB landscape, not just the SEC or Big 10.

There is actually a formula that the committee follows pretty reliably, as Adam McClintock has charted over the past number of years. That’s why they reach the rankings that they do; it’s not some conspiracy or opaque process. I levied several complaints at the metrics they used as part of that process last year, as their SOS metric in particular was completely ridiculous, but it’s not hard to understand why these rankings come out the way they do, even if you disagree.

Of course, Cignetti just does not care about that. There is a large contingent of Indiana and Big 10 fans that love nothing more than when a coach from the nation’s second-best conference plays to his audience like this, and Cignetti knows that— it’s clear that’s what he’s doing.

There are going to be some poor dupes that fall in line with this sentiment, illogical as it is, simply because a coach of Cignetti’s statue said it. It will only fuel more conspiracy talk, despite being provably false— and a coach like Cignetti should be above that kind of thing.

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